DETROIT—The foundation upon which the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings are built is puck possession. Have the puck, send it at the other team's net, get some of them in there, and in the process, keep the opponent from doing the same.

Most of the time, it works. Chicago was fourth in the NHL in Corsi percentage this season, the ratio of the Blackhawks' shot attempts at even strength to their opponents’, while Detroit was sixth. Monday night, in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals, the Red Wings had the advantage, but wound up losing, 4-3, as the Blackhawks forced a decisive seventh game on Wednesday night back in Chicago.

That's not how it's supposed to work, but sometimes things happen. Things like a power-play goal nine seconds after a penalty. Things like a complete failure to cover an open man in the slot. Things like a rebound plucked from just out of a goaltender's reach. Things like a breakaway turning into a penalty shot. Things like a goaltender facing a combined 16 shots from Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen, and Henrik Zetterberg, and stopping them all.

"It's not like they came in here and squashed us tonight," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "They got what we gave them, period."

Chicago had as many shots on goal in the game, 28, as Detroit did through two periods. At the end of that second frame, the Red Wings had a 2-1 lead, but were unable to convert Michal Rozsival's high-sticking penalty into a power play goal, part of an 0-for-3 performance with the man advantage. It was on that Blackhawks penalty kill that Corey Crawford did some of his best work on a 35-save night, twice denying Franzen, while also making saves on slap shots by Jakub Kindl and Jonathan Ericsson.

Meanwhile, the Blackhawks took advantage of the Red Wings' mistakes—"gifts" were what Babcock called them—with nothing looming larger than the insurance goal that Michael Frolik scored on a penalty shot after Carlo Colaiacovo was called for a slash.

That play came out of solid Red Wings possession—and, in fact, a Corsi event. Frolik blocked Colaiacovo's shot just inside the Chicago blue line, and as the puck went toward center ice, he was off to the races. It was that kind of night for the Red Wings, and it happens.

"I think we did an OK job," Zetterberg said. "On the goals, we had the puck, and it ended up on their stick instead of ours. That happens sometimes. You've just got to flush it out and move on."

Zetterberg was then asked the more narrative-friendly question about big-name players like him needing to come through with big performances in Game 7 the way that Jonathan Toews did for Chicago with two assists in Game 6. He was diplomatic, saying, "Guys have been through it before and it's nice that we've been through it this year, and I think that helped our team," but the truth is that Detroit had a fine chance to win Game 6 because of the efforts of its stars—it was just that Chicago made the most of its moments of advantage, which, like Zetterberg said, happens sometimes.

"Before the series, we said it was going to be six or seven games," said Marian Hossa, who opened Monday's scoring on a power-play goal in traffic. "It's not a surprise. It's two great teams playing against each other. It's tight out there and it's going to be exciting until the last game."

When Hossa says that these are two great teams, he is not just throwing verbal bouquets toward his former team. Again, Chicago was the NHL's fourth-best possession team, and Detroit was the sixth-best. From the number of chances being generated, the amount of skill on display is clear. The reason that the Red Wings wound up as the West's No. 7 seed is that Detroit went 10-6-8 in one-goal games during the regular season, the worst mark of any team that made the playoffs.

One-goal games are decided by those little moments that could go either way: the rebound that bounces out too far for the follow-up skater to pounce on, the power-play slapper that finds its way through a screen to beat the other goalie, the blocked shot that ricochets into the stands instead of springing the defensive forward for a breakaway—the moments that did not go the Red Wings' way in Game 6.